


Yet Another Cheesy Christmas Story

by Peridaniel



Category: Daria (Cartoon)
Genre: Christmas, Coming Out, F/F, Some Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-07
Updated: 2019-12-07
Packaged: 2021-02-18 11:49:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21710278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Peridaniel/pseuds/Peridaniel
Summary: Daria and Jane come home for their first Christmas since heading off to college, and celebrate with reunions, building previously nonexistent family ties, and, of course, coming out of the closet.
Relationships: Jane Lane/Daria Morgendorffer
Comments: 9
Kudos: 79





	Yet Another Cheesy Christmas Story

**Author's Note:**

> Welp it's Christmas season, and I figured I'd do something for it this year. This takes place in the same timeline as my _Lawndale High: The Next Generation_ fanfic, but I'm not including it in the series page since none of the central characters are involved or even existent at this point. But if you read that series as well, there are connections. That said, you don't need to have read any of LH:TNG to read this. Again, the central characters don't even exist yet. So, enjoy.

The scenery outside the airplane was surprisingly clear for a winter night. As Daria idly stared out the window, she could see the trees, lakes, and occasional snow-covered fields that covered the ground. 

Her head darted to her other side as she felt a head slump onto her shoulder, a bit of black hair falling in front of the collar of her coat. 

"Jane, what are you doing?" she asked.

"We're a couple now, Daria," Jane replied in a sleepy mumble. "Couples sleep on each other's shoulders." 

"I suppose so," Daria said with a small smile, gently lifting her arm up and wrapping it around her companion. "But this is using up one of your three allotted 'stereotypical cutesy couple' things for this month." 

"I'll take it." Jane shuffled a little closer to Daria, melting into her arm. 

It wasn't long after that, however, before the two felt the plane slowly start to descend and Daria once again looked out the window. 

"So much for sleeping," she said. 

Jane slowly straightened herself up again as Daria released her. "Hey, since that wasn't that long, can it not count towards my cutesy couple thing limit?" 

"I'll think about it," Daria replied. "Anyway, you think Trent's actually gonna be on time to pick us up?" 

"I called him to tell him the plane was taking off about three hours before we left." 

"Good thinking."

* * *

Sure enough, after the girls got their luggage and came to the main part of the airport, they saw Trent off to the side, sleeping on a bench. They walked over to him and Jane sat next to him. 

"Trent," she said, lightly shaking him. "Trent!" 

Trent grunted and shifted. "But Jesse, we can't let the officers see the-" 

"Trent!" 

This fully stirred Trent, who opened his eyes and gave Jane and Daria a friendly smile. "Hey, Daria. Hey, Janey. Good to see you again." 

"Good to see you, too," Daria said with a smile. "I see you haven't changed." 

"Nah, same old, same old," Trent replied. "What about you two? How's college life been?" 

"Well, I'm still getting the same average grades I got in high school, I joined some kind of photography group that I never go to the meetings for, and..." She hesitantly paused and looked at Daria, who gave a single nod. "Me and Daria are... dating."

Trent lifted his eyebrows and looked at both of them before giving a supportive smile. "That's cool. You know, I always kinda sensed something between you two." He got up and the three began walking towards the exit. "So, you gonna tell the family?" 

"We're gonna tell _my_ family," Daria replied. "Jane's coming to our Christmas." 

" _Our_ family, on the other hand, probably doesn't even remember that I'm in college now," added Jane. "I'll probably mention it in passing, Mom might give me a little 'love is love' statement, and then nothing else will happen." 

"True," Trent said. "Surprisingly, Dad did remember to get us Christmas presents while he was in Iceland. And Penny sent you something from Brazil." 

"Oh, joy."

* * *

Daria already saw both of her parents peeking through the window as she walked up to her old house again. As they spotted her, they both ran to the door and opened it up with warm, loving smiles. 

"Daria, sweetie, it's so good to see you again," Helen said. 

"Good to see you, too," Daria replied as she walked in and set her suitcase against the door. 

"Daria?" a high pitched voice called from upstairs. Shortly after, Quinn ran down the stairs with lit-up eyes and practically fell into Daria with a hug. "I've missed you." 

Daria tensed up at the sudden display of affection, prompting Quinn to let go of her and smile sheepishly. 

"Sorry," she said. "It's just- I didn't think the house would feel so empty without you." 

"I can't believe I'm saying this, and you better not tell anyone," Daria replied, "but I've missed you, too." 

"So, what's been happening in college?" Quinn asked. "Any new friends. Or new boyfriends?" A teasing smile crept over her face at that. 

"No new... boyfriends," Daria answered, avoiding Quinn's gaze. 

"I've already got a 'welcome back home' meal cookin' in the kitchen," Jake said with a smile, which then quickly turned into an alarmed expression. "Oh, crap! The food!" He ran into the kitchen in a panic. 

"It ain't home without Dad's subpar cooking," Daria said with dry amusement. "Speaking of which, Jane is still allowed to come to Christmas dinner with us, right?" 

"Of course she is, sweetie," answered Helen. "In my eyes, she's just as much of family as you are." 

_You have no idea,_ Daria thought.

* * *

"Wow, just as comfortably run-down as I always remember it being," Jane said as she looked around the Lane household. 

"Probably more," Trent said as he followed his sister inside. "But I did get us a tree this year." 

Jane followed him into the living room where a small, but decent-looking tree stood with white Christmas lights strewn around it. To Jane's surprise, there were even a few cheaply wrapped presents laying around it.

"I told you Dad remembered to get us stuff this year," Trent said as he saw Jane look at the gifts in surprise. "The blue one is to you from him, the red one's from me, and the cardboard box with the bow on it is from Penny." 

"And you can go ahead and open them now if you want," the two heard a male voice from behind them say. "You know we've never been much for tradition." 

Jane turned around to see Vincent and Amanda both standing in the entryway to the living room with smiles on their faces. 

"Um, hey," Jane said as she stepped closer to them. "You two haven't been home for Christmas in..." She thought for a moment- "I don't even remember." 

Vincent shrugged. "We've been thinking a lot about you and Trent, and how Trent's still living with us, and you actually came back from college." 

"Once all your siblings graduated high school, they never really visited unless they needed money or a place to stay," Amanda said. 

"And we just kinda wanted to prevent the same thing from happening with you," Vincent spoke again. "We love both of you, and your siblings, and we figured that we'd use this Christmas as an opportunity to show it a little better." 

"Thanks," Jane said a little awkwardly. "I, um, love you guys, too." She wasn't sure if she was totally telling the truth or not, given her near-total lack of relationship with them, but they were doing something, and she didn't want to leave it unacknowledged. _Better late than never, I guess._

And so, she went to the tree and picked up the box in red wrapping paper first. Unwrapping it and opening the box, she saw a clunky tablet with a stylus inside. 

"It's a drawing tablet," Trent explained, pointing to the informational piece of paper inside the box. "Figured you might wanna go digital." 

"How did you manage to afford this?" Jane asked, lifting up the tablet. 

"It wasn't too much," Trent replied with a shrug. "But most of it came from me and Jesse playing on the streets. We pooled our money with Max and Nick, and bought it online." 

"Thanks," Jane said with a smile. "Next one, I suppose." She grabbed the box with the bow, which had a tag on it with messy handwriting that simply read, 

_It's not much, but hope you like._  
 _-Penny_

Jane opened the box, tearing through newspaper before she found a small, traditional looking clay pot. It was brown and seemed to have religious figures of sorts carved into it. 

"Huh," she said, holding it up. 

"Oh, how beautiful!" Amanda happily sighed, holding her hands together. 

"I guess so," responded Jane with a shrug.

"Mine next," Vincent said. "Well, it's from me and your mother." 

Jane nodded and reached for the blue-wrapped box. Inside of this one was some small containers filled with visibly chunky, but vibrantly colored paint.

"It's this weird traditional paint mixture," explained Vincent. "We figured you might like to work with it. I mean, um, you do paint, right?" As he went on, his voice got quieter, and he looked uneasy. 

"Yea," Jane replied with a reassuring nod. "Thanks, you guys. They're great." Vincent and Amanda both sighed with relief. 

After some quiet moments, Jane spoke again. "As much as I love this sudden family time, I hope you don't mind that I made plans to spend Christmas Day with the Morgendorffers." 

"Oh, no, that's not a problem," Amanda said with a handwave. "You've always been good friends with Helen's daughter." 

"Um, yea, good friends," Jane said. "Actually, um, I have something to tell you two while we're all talking. We're not just friends. We're girlfriends." She looked up at them and tried to look them both in the eye. "I'm bi." 

"That's wonderful, sweetie," Amanda said. 

"Yep," Vincent agreed. "Love is love. Now, do you want us to save you some pumpkin pie? We're gonna experiment with baking in the kiln." 

"Told ya," Jane said to Trent.

* * *

As the Morgendorffers were setting up the table on Christmas, the doorbell rang, which Daria promptly ran to answer. 

"Hey, snookums," Jane said with a smirk. 

"Never call me that again," Daria responded, rolling her eyes. 

"Sorry, do you prefer 'babe?' Or 'honey buns?' Or 'Daddy's little slut?'"

"Shut up, or I'll be forced to start calling you 'Janey Bear.'"

"Spare me the horror." Jane laughed a little and leaned in for a kiss, which Daria, after quickly checking to make sure no one else was around or coming by, followed along with. 

"So, how are we gonna tell your family?" Jane asked as she came inside. "Just do that at the dinner table? Or, one better, a sexy makeout session!" 

"Why stop there? Why not just strip me down to my socks?" 

They immediately shut up when Helen walked into the living room, thankfully seeming to have not heard a thing. 

"Hello, Jane," she greeted. "Dinner will be ready shortly." 

"Jakey's famous seasoned chicken!" Jake said excitedly, sticking his head out the kitchen entryway. "Along with some ham, potato salad, and pumpkin pie and cookies for dessert. Really screams 'Christmas', don't you think, Jane-O?" 

"Oh, absolutely," Jane replied. "Thanks for having me over." 

"Anytime, kiddo," responded Jake with a thumbs up before he went back into the kitchen. Daria, Jane, and Helen followed along and sat around the table, where Quinn was already seated and talking on the cordless phone. 

"Well, actually, Sandi, I've heard that that weird sugarless frosting can cause cancer. No, no, I'm not questioning you, I know you know a lot, it's just- Yea, I know, but-" 

Her eyes narrowed. "Well, why does it matter? The Fashion Club disbanded, remember? Well, if we still need to 'set an example,' then why don't we just reform the club? Exactly." 

She sighed. "Look, my sister and her friend are here, and we're gonna eat dinner soon, so- Yes, yes, I'll restrain myself. Only 800 calories maximum. Bye." 

She hung up and rolled her eyes. "Screw her. I'm gonna eat all the freaking calories I freaking want. It's freaking Christmas." 

"Did I miss some character development or something?" Jane asked with a raised brow.

Daria also looked a bit surprised. "I guess the Fashion Club breaking apart has had more of an effect on you four than I thought." 

"I guess so," said Quinn with a shrug. "Me, Stacy, and Tiffany have been moving on from it and getting into other stuff. Sandi's still stuck in the old days and is still acting like we're supposed to be her pretty brainless drones." 

"Well, color me impressed," Daria said. 

"Welp, dinner's ready," Jake called after checking the temperature of his chicken. "You all can come up whenever you're ready." 

All at the table got up and grabbed plates, silverware, and servings of food before sitting back down along with Jake. 

"So, before we all dig in, I just wanna say how happy I am that all of us are here," he began. "Daria's back from college, Quinn's grades have been better than what we've ever seen them, and overall, things are pretty good. And now, it's Christmas, and almost a new year, and we're all sitting together, just like old times." 

"I've been in college for four months, Dad," Daria interjected. "Old times is a little bit of an exaggeration." 

"Well, still," continued Jake, "you're still here. When my old college let us out for Christmas break, I never knew what to do. I wasn't welcome at home, I didn't have many friends to celebrate with... I was just alone in my dorm, drinking. And I'm glad your mother and I have made it so that it wasn't the same with you. And you can even bring your friend over to celebrate with us!" 

He raised a glass of eggnog with a wide smile on his face. "So here's to happy family time and a damn fantastic Christmas!" 

"That was wonderful, Jake," Helen said, warmly smiling. "And thank you for not going off on a rant about your father."

Jake proudly took in his wife's praise. "I've been rehearsing all month!" 

Daria opened her mouth, but then closed it and looked at Jane, who nodded. She looked across the table at her family and opened her mouth to speak again. 

"Well, I guess on that note, now might be an at least halfway decent time to tell you all something." 

"What is it, sweetie?" Helen asked. 

Daria hesitated. Everyone's eyes were on her now. She steeled herself and spoke again. "Well, Jane and I have been getting a lot more alone time in college, and it's kinda made us both realize that, cheesy as it sounds, we, um... have something special between us." 

Helen nodded as her face slowly began to show understanding, along with a bit of shock. "...Oh." 

"Yea," Daria said. "We've been dating for almost two months." She took a hold of Jane's hand under the table and they pulled their now intertwined hands up, laying their elbows on the table. Jane gave a small, awkward smile and nodded. 

"I knew it!" Quinn yelled with excitement. "I knew you were in love with her!" 

"What?" asked Daria. 

"Oh, come on, Daria. It was so obvious. You were basically joined at the chip from the moment you saw each other, you got all jealous when she started dating Tom, and when you dated Tom, you didn't seem all that into him." 

"I guess you've got a point." 

"Well, I think that's great, kiddo," Jake said with a supportive smile. "Gay, straight, bi, whatever, we love you no matter what." 

"Me, too," Helen added, though she sounded a bit more distant, and didn't meet Daria's gaze. 

"Are you freaked out?" Daria nervously asked her mother. 

Helen took a deep breath before responding, actually looking at her daughter this time. "No, honey. Absolutely not." She mimicked Jake's supportive smile. "It's a surprise, for sure, but your father's right. We love you no matter who you love." 

"Good," Daria responded, feeling relieved.

* * *

After the festivities were over, Daria said goodbye to Jane for the night and went up to her room to unwind with a book. She didn't get too far into it, though, before she heard the phone ring and picked it up. 

"Hello, you've reached the crisis hotline," she said dryly. 

The person on the other end laughed. "There's my favorite niece." 

Daria set the book down on the pages she was on and sat up. "Oh. Hi, Aunt Amy." 

"Hi, Daria," Amy said. "I was just calling to see if my present for you arrived in the mail yet." 

"Unless my mom saw it before I got to it and burned it, then no."

"Likely as that is, it's probably the damn FedEx people. Never reliable." Daria could hear her groan in frustration a little. "But anyway, how was your first Christmas having to voluntarily leave the comforts of a dorm room to see your family?" 

"Pretty decent. Although, I did tell the family something that I figure I should probably tell you, too." 

"What, that you're dating that Jane Lane girl?" 

Daria's eyes widened in surprise. "How did you know?" 

Amy laughed. "Daria, I practically saw pink triangles form on your sleeves when you talked about her, especially when comparing it to how you talked about Tom when you were dating him." 

"Ah. Guess I was never too subtle, was I?" 

"Not at all. And I'm happy something's finally coming out of it, no pun intended." 

"None taken." 

"Anyway, how did your mom react? Is she upset that she's not gonna get any grandchildren?" 

"Mom was a little freaked at first, but she's okay with it," Daria replied. After a moment of hesitation, she added, "And, well, she might still get grandchildren." 

"You're kidding." 

"Well, Jane already knows she wants kids, and I wouldn't mind contributing some good apples in the bad bunch the next generation is likely gonna be." 

"I suppose." 

"Hell, if we get a daughter, I might wanna even name her after you." 

"Oh, don't flatter me too much now. At any rate, though, I'll let you recover from holiday festivities. Tell Jane she's a lucky girl." 

Daria smiled and thought about a conversation in which she called meeting Jane the one moment of good luck in her life, and supposed Jane likely felt the same way. "I'll do that."

* * *

At Pizza King the next day, Daria and Jane both sat over a large pizza like what they used to do in high school. 

"So, after eating some funky tasting kiln-baked pie last night after I got home, my parents and I actually had a nice discussion," Jane said between mouthfuls of pizza. "They actually kinda wanna start having something of a relationship with me and Trent." 

"Think they're gonna follow through with that?" 

"I honestly hope so." Jane looked up in thought as she sipped her soda before coming back down to Earth and looking at her girlfriend. "Anyway, what did you do last night after I left?" 

"Well, Aunt Amy called, and I told her about us. Or, rather, I told her I wanted to tell her something and she immediately knew." 

"Intuition, I suppose." 

"And, um-" She paused- "I'm only saying this because I feel like, at this point, she's clairvoyant enough to tell if I don't, but, um... She thinks you're a lucky girl." 

As a response, Jane leaned in for a long kiss. After she broke away from it, she smiled. "Of course I am, dumbass. And don't you dare forget that you're just as lucky as I am." 

Daria smiled as well. "Absolutely."

**Author's Note:**

> Hope y'all have a good Christmas, or Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa, or winter solstice, or whatever you celebrate in the winter months. Get good presents and eat good candy canes. No, not the boring mint ones we all think of, the special ones they sell that are, like, fruit-flavored. Those are better. You can't change my mind on this. Anyway bye.


End file.
